Tanney to be featured on History Channel

August 26, 2011

Monmouth College Office of Communications - Senior Alex Tanney works with the “Stan Lee’s Superhumans” film crew to show his talents on television. The show’s producers saw Tanney’s talents and decided to feature him on the show. An air date has not been released.

Tanney, along with some of his teammates, made a trick shot video last spring after University of Connecticut’s Jonny Mac made a similar video.

“Sean Wells, a former teammate of mine, called me out on the Johnny Mac video,” said Tanney. “He knows that I am extremely competitive and told me I couldn’t make one as good as the UConn video.”

Tanney’s trick shot video became more popular than he expected.

“Like I have said in all my interviews, we had no idea it would become so popular,” he said. “We posted it on a Sunday night and by Monday afternoon it was on ESPN. It has been a good experience though. It was not only great exposure for our football program, but for Monmouth College, and Division III football.”

Because of the video, Dan Nolan, Sports Information Director, was contacted by History Channel representatives to feature Tanney during the second season of “Stan Lee’s Superhumans.”

“I was pretty surprised when Dan Nolan contacted me about doing the show even though I knew my trick shot video had reached a global audience. It was a good experience,” said Tanney.

“Stan Lee’s Superhumans” is based in England. Staff travel around the world searching for people with extraordinary abilities. Previous episodes of the show have featured a man who doesn’t feel pain, “monkey man,” and a “human calculator.”

As a result of the video, Tanney will not be the only one in the spotlight from Monmouth College. Seniors Vinnie Miles and Cory Bishop, along with Junior Spencer Brown, helped Tanney during his trick shot video. Tanney was very thankful for the help of his teammates.

“They are just some of the WR’s (wide receivers) and buddies that I hang out with in the offseason so they wanted to help,” said Tanney. “A couple of them also pushed me to do the video. They were a huge help behind the scenes with the video. They didn’t get a lot of the exposure that they deserved after the video was released, so I was glad they were able to help and be included with the show.”

Miles also helped film and edit the original trick shot video.

“During the filming I caught footballs, helped warm up, and drove the truck for some shots,” said Miles

For the show, Tanney filmed several shots at Monmouth College and went to a firing range where his accuracy was compared to a 9 mm handgun.

“They hooked me up to probably 12 or 13 sensors, I made some throws, and then they analyzed the data,” said Tanney in a press release. “It was interesting to look at it from the scientific standpoint.”

The air date has not been released, but Tanney along with his teammates will be featured in the second season.